Monday, 20 May 2013

Ten Books...for Romance

Last week was the
Romantic Novelists’ Association awards with the Romantic Novel of the Year won ‘by
a nose’ by Jenny Colgan’s Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of
Dreams. In recognition of her win we thought it would be lovely
to look at books with a bit of romance. And who better to provide us with
romance than the previous year’s winners.

1. Please Don’t
Stop the Music by Jan Lovering – Jemima and Ben each have secrets from their
respective pasts. When they meet they are curious about each other. Will their
secrets remain hidden?

2. The Last
Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes – Ellie is a journalist and
trawling the newspaper achives looking for something, anything, to grab her
which would make a good story. It didn’t look promising, until she found a
letter from 1960 written by a man asking his lover to leave her husband.

3. Lost Dogs
and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon – Rachel has been left a house, a dog
and kennels. Zoe’s children have been given a puppy, but it is Zoe that ends up
looking after it. And Natalie and Johnny are trying for a baby, but a basset
hound is their child-substitute. Their paths cross with each other whilst
walking their dogs...

4. East of
the Sun by Julia Gregson – Rose, Victoria and Viva are travelling to
India to start their new lives. It is1928 and each woman has their own reason
for leaving her home country.

5. Pillow
Talk by Freya North – A story about sleep walking, jewellery making
and music. Petra is works in London as a jeweler. Arlo, her high school
sweetheart, now works at a private school having left the music business
behind. They haven’t seen each other for seventeen years. Then they’re in front
of each other, in a sweet shop, in the middle of nowhere.

6. Iris &
Ruby by Rosie Thomas – This story is set in the heat and bustle of
Cairo. Teenager Ruby has fled England to join her grandmother, Iris. Together
they document Iris’s memories from Cairo during World War Two and the romance
she had.

7. Gardens of
Delight by Erica James – Gardens of Delight is a holiday for gardening
enthusiastists in the Lake Como area of Italy. They are there for a peaceful
life. But with relationships and romance, peaceful is the last thing that’ll
happen.

8. A
Good Voyage by
Katharine Davies – A modern day Twelfth Night. Twin Valentina cuts off her hair
and become s gardener. She helps Leo with his overgrown and neglected garden
but soon fall sin love with him. But Leo is infatuated with Melody, the local
headmistress. But Melody, in mouring for her brother, has other admirers.
Relationships come to her head when Leo holds a party in his beautiful new
garden.

9. Foreign
Fruit by Jojo Moyes –
It is the 1950s and the setting is a very English seaside town. Lottie, an
evacuee, has an unremarkable life which is transformed when she moves there.
New mum Daisy, recently abandoned by her partner, has been given the task of
renovating a house. Which until recently belonged to Lottie...

10. Playing James by Sarah
Mason – Holly is a young journalist, moved from covering pet deaths to crime
for the local newspaper. The police PR department think it’ll be a good story
for Holly to shadow Detective James Sabine and the resulting column is
increasingly popular with the readers. It appears everyone is waiting for a
romance to kindle between the journalist and detective.

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Ten Books...for Romance

Last week was the
Romantic Novelists’ Association awards with the Romantic Novel of the Year won ‘by
a nose’ by Jenny Colgan’s Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of
Dreams. In recognition of her win we thought it would be lovely
to look at books with a bit of romance. And who better to provide us with
romance than the previous year’s winners.

1. Please Don’t
Stop the Music by Jan Lovering – Jemima and Ben each have secrets from their
respective pasts. When they meet they are curious about each other. Will their
secrets remain hidden?

2. The Last
Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes – Ellie is a journalist and
trawling the newspaper achives looking for something, anything, to grab her
which would make a good story. It didn’t look promising, until she found a
letter from 1960 written by a man asking his lover to leave her husband.

3. Lost Dogs
and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon – Rachel has been left a house, a dog
and kennels. Zoe’s children have been given a puppy, but it is Zoe that ends up
looking after it. And Natalie and Johnny are trying for a baby, but a basset
hound is their child-substitute. Their paths cross with each other whilst
walking their dogs...

4. East of
the Sun by Julia Gregson – Rose, Victoria and Viva are travelling to
India to start their new lives. It is1928 and each woman has their own reason
for leaving her home country.

5. Pillow
Talk by Freya North – A story about sleep walking, jewellery making
and music. Petra is works in London as a jeweler. Arlo, her high school
sweetheart, now works at a private school having left the music business
behind. They haven’t seen each other for seventeen years. Then they’re in front
of each other, in a sweet shop, in the middle of nowhere.